


Everyone Else and Then Myself

by Purpledragon6



Category: The Secret Saturdays
Genre: Doyle being the protective shit that he is, Family Fluff, Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-05-01 00:04:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14508114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purpledragon6/pseuds/Purpledragon6
Summary: Even with the threat of Kur over, the Greymen don't stop their hunt over Zak and his family. This time they're without Mercy, and Zak is forced to team up with someone he thought he wouldn't have to deal with again. All while fighting for survival and searching for the last member of his family he can run to.





	Everyone Else and Then Myself

24 hours ago it was different.

24 hours ago they were all still alive- 24 hours ago I was happy, and things were happy but even 24 hours ago I was still running for my life. Just not as fast as I had to be running now. Enough that my lungs felt ready to give out and like my heart was about to explode out of my chest. The kind of running that has you seeing double and those start dots-

"Kinda regretting skipping out on training..." A soft joke, but its enough to get a laugh out of me.

Cold, drying blood steadily dripped down my scraped up shoulder as I ran in any direction that was away from those who were following me. I could hear the high heels of the pursuing grey-woman splashing in the dirty water of the alley-way's puddles. Still getting closer and closer- but always staying just out of reach. Just like my sense of safety.

"GET BACK HERE!" Her voice was like knives, stabbing my ears as she yelled.

I ran faster now- Not that I had a choice in the matter. There was a seemingly abandoned diner just up ahead, its old sign twitching as the broken light-bulbs shimmered and flickered like a homing beacon. I remembered going there when I was little, but I was going to have to hold off on the happy memories for a moment because right now, if I stopped running... I was going to probably die... If I could hold out just a little bit longer then I stood a fighting chance.

"Just a little longer..."

Breathing was quickly becoming painful, but that didn't stop me from laughing out softly in relief when I saw that the backdoor to the diner was opened. Driving in with the last of my strength was even more painful, but at least I was safe. A short scramble to under an old table, and I was out of view from the door's window. Just as the heels skidded to a halt. Now was the waiting game, for her to find me. It started officially when those heals entered the backdoor, but only halfway.

The greywoman took in a few of her own deep breaths, and then she suddenly stopped.

"I know you're in here Zak- Show yourself!" She shouted, voice sounding like two warning shots being fired into the air.

I covered my mouth as my heart raced faster, attempting to quiet my ragged breathing for just a few more seconds. She turned in a circle a few times, and walked further into the room. I was sure she had found me- but then her steps began to sound farther from where I was hiding. At that moment, her wrist communicator crackled to life.

"Have you found the boy yet? What is your report." An unfamiliar voice sounded.

"Hes not here, but hes injured, so he couldn't have gotten far." She answered bluntly, sounding almost annoyed. "He was last seen on 67th street."

"What about the rest of the family?" The same voice asked.

"All dead the last I checked. Kur was the only survivor, which doesn't surprise me." She reported. "Other members of his extended family couldn't be found either- But I've told that we're not concerned with that."

"Not in the least bit. Our files only have his parents and 'siblings' as being associated with him."

I could almost cry from what little joy I felt over the Greymen's incomplete files. Almost laugh at how things they thought to be insignificant meant the absolute world to me. They hadn't gotten everyone I loved and cared about, and that was enough for me.

"He'll have to surface soon then." The greywoman said suddenly.

"With a little self control-." The voice started but was cut off.

"Oh give it a rest." She mumbled, shutting off her com and walked out the door.

When I finally thought it was safe, I slowly slipped out from under the table and bolted towards the door and in the opposite direction from her.

She was right... I was injured and while not badly, I still couldn't get very far without stumbling or stopping to hack up a lung (metaphor, of course). Which didn't take long, as I unwillingly fell just a few paces away from where I had started. Beaten and tired, I fought desperately to get back up, curling into a small ball near the brick wall of the diner when I couldn't. I closed my eyes, in a bitter attempt to 'sleep' just enough to get back my strength.

But I knew even with that short amount, I would just end up having the same dream over and over again...

"GET OUT OF HERE ZAK!" His mother screamed, pushing her son away from the falling debris of their house.

The house they had just finished rebuilding. 6 months of work repairing 12 years of memories- A shard of broken glass stabbed Zak's shoulder. The shock preventing him from truly feeling anything other than a dull ache. He turned his head quickly and saw Fisk pinned under the fallen couch, their parents struggling in assisting him while Komodo screeched loudly in desperation...

That was the last time they were all together. And the last time he saw them alive. After that, he had started running, getting out of his home just like his mother had told him.

And it was all his fault...

Regular POV:

It wasn't until around 9:15 that night that Zak was awoken out of his already uneasy sleep. His whole body was wrecked by cold and pain, and the overwhelming feeling of being alone. What he wouldn't give for a familiar face right about now- Heck, he wouldn't even mind if that familiar face was Argost himself, he just wanted familiarity again...

"Zak!"

Zak jerked his body upward, startled by the sound of someone running towards him. He didn't need to look to see who it was, and he sure as shit didn't want to get caught by THIS particular enemy. Despite his body screaming at him, he stood up and he bolted down the street.

"Hey!" The voice behind him sounded a bit strained.

'Good... This better hurt him too...' Zak didn't bother to turn around, he just kept running.

Where to? He had no idea just yet. Just as long as he was away from those guys and out of harms way. Maybe he could find his uncle and- The footsteps behind him stopped falling suddenly, and the sounds of something whizzing through the air almost made Zak stop.

"What the-" He soon stopped too, when his knees suddenly gave out, and he felt something sharp and cold poking the back of his leg. "Of course... A tranquilizer dart."

Zak sighed, feeling his head fill with a forced sleep as smoke began to fog his eyes, to the point of him having to close them.

With his strength fading quickly, Zak slumped down completely, lifting his head only once when he felt someone standing beside him. The last thing (or person) he saw was of course Francis, who was now standing over him. Zak grimaced, and then he looked up at the boy, expecting to see a smug grin on the young greyman's face. But to his surprised, Francis actually looked worried before things went dark.

"Just give me two seconds. I'm almost done." He heard an all to familiar voice mumble.

In an instance, Zak was awake and frantically searching his surroundings. He wasn't in a lab or some other horror/sci-fi setting like he had expected, but rather he was in a small bedroom. One with stark white walls and what looked to be a dark blue shag rug on the floor. The bed he was on was the same color as the walls, but it was comfortable to say the least, other than the pain in his arm. Actually, he had nearly forgotten about in the seconds it took him to look around.

"Right... I got cut pretty bad-" Zak turned his head quickly to the right and saw several stitches in his shoulder, and most of it was wrapped up except for a little bit, which Francis was now wrapping in white gauze. Matching stitches were there also an- Wait a second!

"Wait! What! Why am I here! Whose room is this- and why are you helping me?" Zak shouted out, watching still as the other worked.

"You were injured, we're in my bedroom, and because I'm not that heartless." Francis answered calmly, finally letting Zak have his arm back.

"Y-your room?" Zak coughed, "I always thought you lived in a pod or something."

"No... Our research found that an actual bedroom was better suited for clones." Francis replied sarcastically.

Zak rolled his eyes at those responses, but he got off the bed quickly and headed for the door. He was so unsure about this situation and everything else, that he wasn't really thinking clearly. All he knew was that he was enemy territory and that he needed to leave. As he placed his hand on the handle, intent on opening the door, he found himself blocked by Francis.

"Where are you going?" Francis asked, placing his full weight onto the door to keep it closed.

"Anywhere but here." Zak answered, trying to push the smaller boy aside.

"You're in the middle of my people's base and they'll probably kill you if they see you're here." Francis pointed out, still pressed to the door despite Zak's best efforts.

"Then why did you bring me here!?" Zak yelped. "And why are they so hell bent on killing me!?"

"I panicked okay! You weren't responding and-" Francis sighed, stepped away from the door, and dropped his arms at his sides. "We just had a war among cryptids and humans with a death toll in the thousands! I apologize if my kind doesn't want to take their chances!"

Zak felt his expression change from anger, to confusion, to shock, and then to sympathy. With the emotional stress finally taking its toll of him, he let his arms drop to his sides as well. With a defeated sigh, he bowed his head lowly to his chest.

"Thanks..." Zak mumbled, sitting down on the carpet. "But you should have left me."

"And why is that?" Francis asked.

The greyman then took a seat next to Zak on the floor. As much as Zak didn't want him there, he also couldn't find it in him to shoo the other away. He wanted a familiar face, and this had been the one he was given. With not much left to have, he decided to take it.

"I don't know." Zak answered dully, burying his face in his knees and taking a deep breath. "I wouldn't be living this nightmare..."

"You'd still be in your current situation." Francis corrected.

"No, I meant being in the same room as you." Zak said, "But being without my family is a nightmare in and of itself..."

"Yeah... About that..."Francis, started then stopped.

While Zak couldn't read his expression, he could tell by the other's tone that there was something Francis was holding off on telling him. He then saw it when Francis twitched, and started rubbing the back of his head in what looked like a nervous tick.

"What?" Zak asked.

A silence.

"Tell me!"

"Well- my people searched the house for you and there were no bodies found in the wreck... But we just assumed-" Francis started, standing up and backing away from a now dumbstruck Zak. "I know we claim to be thorough in our research, but sometimes we let details like that slide in favor of moving to the next step of thi-"

"So they may still be alive?" Zak asked, almost in a daze.

"Its possible. But not likely." Francis answered, nodding his head.

Zak scoffed. His whole world was being flipped upside down and right side up all at once as his brain attempted to process Francis' words, and then the events before the accident. All the pain he had caused and then been through himself- he never asked for this.

"And whys that?" Zak asked, his tone mocking Francis from earlier.

"Well, with their absolute lack of self control-Surviving doesn't really seem possible."

Zak jumped to his feet and bit down hard on his tongue. An awkward tension passed between the two, until Zak finally broke it by pinning the smaller boy to the wall punching him in the face as hard as he could. It was with such a force that Francis' glasses were knocked to the floor, and while half of him felt bad for it, the other half felt that it was a right and justly thing to do. Based on Francis' lack of reaction, he seemed to think the same thing.

"Your kind attacked us! If self control played a role in this then it was on their end and not ours!" Zak shouted, letting the boy go and watching him slip to the floor.

"I-I'd point out how your 'kind' attacked humanity first- But I'd rather save myself from your wrath a second time."

Zak panted softly now as his anger soon subsided. Quickly, he walked across the room and sat on the bed. The kurling allowed a moment of quiet to pass them both before he laid back, staring up at the ceiling and closing his eyes. It may have been his inner-kur still lingering in him, but he knew what he was feeling right now wasn't him. Not that he would let the other know that and risk getting another self control lecture.

"Sorry..."

Zak opened his eyes and saw Francis still sitting on the floor, a light purple bruise on the side of his jaw. In his hands, he held his glasses loosely by their frames. His bangs shielded his uncovered eyes from Zak's view, making his expression once again unreadable.

"I'm sorry too." Zak mumbled, getting off the bed and heading for the door once more.

"Where are you off to now?" Francis asked, not leaving his place on the floor.

"I have to find them, even if they are dead, at least I could say my goodbyes." Zak sighed.

"I'm coming with you then." Francis said, "Lets face it, in your condition, you're roadkill."

Zak bowed his head once again suddenly, lifting his own hand and putting it over the other's hand before letting out a soft chuckle at the comment, followed by a wild round of laughs. For the first time ever, the two boys laughed until they were both blue in the face. (Or rather an awkward shade of whatever color it was their skin would turn). Finally, they settled down, and a neutral tension soon settled over them both in a comfortable way.

"Fine, we'll leave tomorrow, after your 'people' start their search again... If they do... We should start by finding my uncle. I remember hearing your people say that they found no extended family, so he might be able to help us-"

"An uncle?" Francis frowned, "I knew we overlooked details but- Your whole file will need to be updated again."

"Don't you get him involved in this."

The two nodded and were didn't say another word for the rest if the night...


End file.
